they depicted, these stories of six or eight generations past were now used as
cases (Japanese: koan) on which students were tested. Intellectual eminence
now passed to the editors, who added layers of cryptical remarks and poetic
lines to koan collections. The meta-comments themselves are repetitions of the
koan style, showing mastery by adding further twists, yet another panel in the
hall of mirrors.
In the following excerpt, the case is the koan, an incident from one of the
T’ang masters, Pai Chang (720–814); the notes are by the Sung dynasty master
Hsueh Tou Ch’ung Hsien (980–1052), who originally compiled the cases (kung
an); the commentary is by Yüan Wu K’o Ch’in (1063–1135), who published
the whole as the Blue Cliff Record in 1128.
Case
A monk asked Pai Chang, “What’s the extraordinary affair?” 1
Chang said: “Sitting alone on Ta Hsiung Mountain.” 2
The monk bowed; 3 Chang thereupon hit him. 4
Notes- There’s an echo in the words. He demonstrates his ability in a
phrase. He flabbergasts people. Though this monk has eyes, he’s
never seen. - His awesome majestic air extends over the whole country. The one
standing and the one sitting are both defeated. - A clever patchrobed monk! There still is such a man who wants to
see such things. - Chang is a competent teacher of our school: why does he not speak
much? The imperative is not carried out vainly.
Commentary... This monk’s bowing was not the same as ordinary bowing: he had
to have eyes before he could do this. He didn’t spill all his guts to others.
Though they knew each other, they acted like they didn’t. (Blue Cliff
Record, 1977: 172)
The great Ch’an anti-intellectuals, advocates of extreme spontaneity, were
now subjects of quasi-scholastic routine. The final burst of creative controversy
within Ch’an revolved around whether to accept this final stage of intellectual
practice. Ta-hui (ca. 1140) of the Lin-chi line, defending “koan-gazing Zen,”
fought off the polemics of Hung-chih (352 in Figure 6.4) of the Ts’ao-Tung
line, who upheld “silent-illumination Zen” (Dumoulin, 1988: 256–260; Kod-
era, 1980: 85–101). But in the very next generation, Chu Hsi was already on
the scene, and Ta-hui’s disciples were most notable for their friendly discussions
with Neo-Confucians—the syncretizing sign of a declining intellectual base.
298 • (^) Intellectual Communities: Asian Paths